but it looks like love

What does it look like to love God and my neighbor?

I know, I know. You might be getting a bit numb to the topic of love. Maybe you have love figured out. If so, stop reading right now. This article won't apply to you. If you're like the rest of us, you can probably admit you have a thing or two to learn about True love.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were clear, precise, practical examples of what True love is? Then we could stop guessing and just do it, right? Some of us long to be told just what to DO in order to demonstrate True love. Would that help? I'm not convinced that it would.

You see, what looks like love isn't always the real deal. Truth is, we ALL know what love LOOKS like, even if we don't know what love IS. Just think of all the donations to charities all over the world that would never be made unless someone was looking. There just has to be something in it for us. It's not flattering, but it's the truth. The world runs on selfishness. And what's really scary is when selfishness is disquised as humility or generosity.

So I won't waste any time telling you to talk to your neighbor even if they aren't like you; I won't try to tell you where the line is between affection and disrespect for your boy/girlfriend's body; and as much as you might like me to, I won't try to tell you how to learn to love people you don't like or that don't like you. That is behavior modification, and it doesn't work. Sure, it might make things look a little bit better, but at the end of the day, no change results.

What I WILL do, is point you once again to the best example of love that we have. The one act of Grace that echoes through all eternity, silencing all other acts of love. The sacrifice that out-does all of our petty performances of trying to love others. The death of Christ.

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He l oved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." - 1 John 4:10-11

May God's love be perfected in us... period.

-Dale